


Wolfish

by UnholyHelbig



Series: Dirty Paws [3]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Full Shift Werewolves, Were-Creatures, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2019-08-19 12:23:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16534496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnholyHelbig/pseuds/UnholyHelbig
Summary: Chloe Beale is pulled back into her past when an old friend shows up on her doorstep unannounced. In order to keep the love of her life safe she journies back home to confront past demons that never really left her side.(Aka: The origin story to Dirty Paws)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so I feel like enough people asked me for this that I'm ready to dive into it. So this prologue is actually the only Chapter that is going to be in current time. Which does mean you guys get a nice little High School AU! Please let me know what you guys think.

**When Chloe Beale** was eight years old, a bird flew into her window. Its feathers had been an electric blue lined with the blackest of blacks that she had ever laid eyes upon. He wore his markings like a thorn crown even as his white underbelly stained with an ugly crimson. It had left a mark on the glass.

Alix was the first to tell her that he had a broken wing, even if she could see that for herself. This birds’ tiny black eyes blinked at her slowly as the Chloe and her two sisters were squatted in the garden beneath her bedroom. He was smaller than she thought. He looked small now, anyway.

 _Can we help him?_ She had asked dumbly, lips quivering in the cold as the freshly powdered snow melted under their knees. She could see the pained expressions that Alix and Nina shared. _We could take him inside, I could keep him in my shoebox. Mommy won’t mind I promise I’ll walk him._

God, she was so innocent then. The blood was starting to seep into the snow and turn it into a muddy crimson. Their breath mingled upon one another. Chloe was panting now, trying to swallow back the stinging in her throat when her sisters said and did nothing. The bird was dying, and she could smell the blood.

Even now, even as a twenty-nine-year-old veterinarian in the dead of Georgia, she remembers that bird. She remembers how Nina wrapped her arm around her and pulled her to her feet, not caring much for the cold as she dragged her into the house through the back door.     

She knew that Alix disposed of him. She probably wrapped a scarf that was already red around a dying body and took him to the edge of the woods that surrounded the property. Chloe hoped that she said some words of solace, but she knew she didn’t.

Sometimes she would get flashes; about home and about the bird that was buried just beyond property lines. The shutters were painted black and the siding was an obnoxious yellow that surged even further in the winters. A childhood home that Chloe hadn’t been back to in eleven years.

Beca was curled into her chest now, not exactly paying attention to the movie in front of them. It cast a strange glow against the room. Her fiancé was pulled close, her eyes fluttering shut as the film droned on. At this moment, she thought of the bluebird and the quiet suburban street that the plotline took place on. A simple scene with banana seat bicycles and dripping popsicles.

Chloe was tracing little circles on the woman’s back, listening to her methodic heartbeat. It lined with the breath that was hot on her throat. Chloe leaned her head against the side of the couch, eyes staring up the oscillating fan above them. She had lost interest in the movie long before Beca had.

Chloe stiffened.

“Mm’srong?” Beca grumbled, her words shaking against bare skin. Her tone was sleepy, ear resting against Chloe’s chest. It was a position they usually assumed after a long day of work. She would be content staying here stroking Beca’s hair for eternity.

“No, everything is fine.”

Even she didn’t believe her own statement, her fiancé curling deeper as she fisted the fabric under her grasp. She wasn’t going to let Chloe go anywhere, not in this lifetime. Beca had her eyes closed and she was facing the back of the couch. “Your heartbeat picked up.”

“Did it?” Chloe asked, the woman lifting up her head as she rested her chin on Chloe’s chest. She didn’t press hard enough to create an ache, instead, those midnight blue eyes just bore into hers. “I thought I was the only one who could do that?”

“Sweetie, when my ear is right over your heart, I can hear _everything_ including the spring roll that you ate for dinner.”

“Oh, ouch Beca. You wound my pride.”

She grasped the remote and flicked off the movie, plunging them into a darkened state. The kitchen light was still on, but neither of them had paid much attention to the plot line. Beca still let out a groan at the prospect of moving. Chloe patted her arm, reluctantly getting another grunt before sitting up careful enough not to squish her. She blinked a few times once she was sitting up, squeezing the bridge of her nose.

Her mind was still buzzing with the past, a cruel sharp crack that made her ache strangely, but Beca didn’t need to know that. She had done this before- laid awake all night while Beca slept. Her thoughts would race, and her stomach would churn but it was always easier to calm herself down when Beca was next to her.

Regardless, she got a squeeze on the shoulder and a soft look. “You coming to bed, _puppy?_ ”

“You just love to push my buttons tonight, don’t you darling?”

Beca hummed as she pressed a quick peck onto Chloe’s lips. She let out a small yelp as the older woman wrapped her arm around Beca’s waist, pulling her close as she deepened the embrace. Beca tasted like mint ice cream and let out a soft little whimper under her, curling fingers into russet hair. “What happened to going to bed?” She asked between kisses.

“Technically we are.”

Beca’s back had ended up pressed close to the leather of the sofa as she smirked into the embrace, looping her arms easily around Chloe’s neck as they pulled each other closer, she ran her tongue over the roof of Beca’s mouth, eliciting a moan. One that was promptly cut off by a hollow knock on a wooden door. Their front door.

Chloe fell into her fiancé, letting out a rough grunt. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“If that’s Aubrey I’m going to rip her throat out.”

“She would call,” Chloe pulled herself back dejectedly, slapping Beca’s knee softly to get her to stop blocking the way to the door. She was sprawled out on the sofa, a disgruntled look on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest. It was nearly twelve, no one should be at their door, yet, little fear licked at her.

The door creaked open like it usually did, announcing whoever came home to the less sensitive-eared person in the house. But the knock had been a dead giveaway, someone had made the trip in the cold of winter, a deadened night that begged for snow. The asphalt was too hot to hold any substance, but kids would still scramble to pull their coats on.

Chloe, however, barely shivered at the shift in temperature. But she did freeze. Her skin felt tight against her bones and the stiffened nature of her stance was enough to crush the metal doorknob under her grasp like it was silly putty. Kali Barrett. It was a person she had begged to forget, one that was staring down at the welcome mat under her boots until the door was pulled open.

Her grin was purely wolfish, skin pale in the moonlight. She was eye level with Chloe, something that had changed since the two girls were in high school. Her hands were shoved into pockets of a washed-out jean jacket, one that had a patch sloppily glued to the right breast. A snake with red eyes, ones that could swallow her up in a moments time. Brown tresses of curls moved against her shoulders like dirtied water, eyes so blue they were almost purple.

“Chloe,” She smiled, “Aren’t you going to invite me in? It’s freezing out here, you know?”

Chloe hadn’t realized she stopped breathing, not until her chest gave out a little warning pain. It was sharp and beat against her ribs. The girl in front of her had an eyebrow raised as she peered around Chloe to a very curious Beca. The woman had somehow gathered herself, sitting in an odd position on the sofa. “Oh, is that your mate? You should introduce us.”

“Beca,” Chloe didn’t’ take her stare away from Kali. “Can you go upstairs?”

The brunette didn’t need a second word from her fiancé. Her phone was already in her hand, calling for Aubrey before she even made it up the stairs.

“Obedient too,” Kali tutted “A human no less.”

“How did you find me?”

Kali had a sharp laugh, pushing her way past Chloe’s stance as she walked into the house. She scanned her stare against every inch of the homey living room; the large bin of movies that lined the wall next to the DVD player, the blanket that had been covering both of them moments ago, even the dorky pictures of the two of them making faces at the camera.

She plucked at a row of black and white photos that was loosely tucked into a larger frame. Chloe shut the door- remembering the day that Beca had dragged her into a photo booth at the mall. It had ended in a loving embrace, their lips locked and their smiles strong.

“Why are you here? Did someone _send_ you?” Kali’s voice was mocking “Oh dear lord, you’re here to off me, aren’t you?”

Chloe had her arms crossed over her chest, chin raised as the let her back press against the door that was cold enough to leak through the fabric of her shirt. She was digging her nails far enough into her palm to draw blood. Blood they could both smell. She set the photo’s down after she was done.

“Relax, Chloe. I just wanted to see what you’ve done for yourself. Apparently, it’s quite a lot, you've got a Ph.D. now?”

Chloe was silent and far from relaxed. The energy that Kali was giving off was threatening. If they hadn’t been standing, if they had met in the woods instead of a common suburban household her shackles would be raised, and her teeth would be dripping with drool as deep rumbling growls rocked through her. No, this wasn’t a friendly visit. This was one begging for submission.

“You see, lone wolves usually come crawling back to their family. You know? We all waited for a very long time for you to realize the mistake that you had made.” She stepped closer, the scent of metal. “But you never did and that made some of us _very_ sad, Chlo Bear.”

She shuddered at the nickname. Kali had a darkened way about her, but Chloe refused to change her stance, to pull her eyes away and duck her head like she would have done years ago. She reached out, softly bushing a strand of red hair away from icy eyes. They stood, breathing heavily for a moment- Kali smelled familiar. Like a bluebird that hadn’t seen the window set up right in front of its eyes. “Come home.”

She grasped at the woman’s wrist, holding it away from the simple touch that she was once administering. “ _This_ is my home.”  

The movement was sudden, a hand quickly wrapped around her throat and cutting off her air supply. Her head slammed against the door behind her as pointed nails drew crimson where it hadn’t been before. Kali was under control, Kali let her eyes shine a deep gold, and Kali brought her sour breath closer than before. Chloe tightened her grip against the wrist she clung to regardless.

“Don’t put me in the position of giving you incentive to return, Chloe.” Her metallic stare darted to the stairs. Chloe stiffened. “Learn some basic manners and buy a plane ticket.”

The undeniable warmth of shed blood spilled across her skin as Kali pulled her nails away with a sickening crunch. Cold fingers moved to stop the flow as she drew in a sharp and heaving breath so cold it could refreeze ice. Kali didn’t’ hesitate in picking the photo’ back up, casting a glance at Chloe before she tore away the top shot.

It left the rim muddied and black with moisture, Chloe swallowing back the sting against her throat and the ache in her heart. “Don’t” Chloe choked “Don’t mistake my compassion for weakness.”

“Deal, sweetie.” Kali shoved the photo in her back pocket. “Just don’t mistake my mercy for kindness.”  


	2. 001

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so here is my dilemma; I don't know if I want to keep it as this format or go into some pretty dope flashbacks of what heppend when Chloe was a kid. Part of me feels like just leaving it up to retelling the story in the present isn't good enough. So every other chapter might be flashbacks. Let me know what you think!

**Chloe had always** been good at folding things. It came naturally her to. A simple four-step process banking on shirts that were neatly ready for packing. She had learned that at her first job. Her social security card was fake, and so was the ID that she produced, having figured early that it was wise to invest in something that could propel her forward. In this case, it was a job in a thrift shop in Oregon that paid her under the table. No trace, all cash. Her boss was good about not asking questions.

The duffel bag in her passenger seat was very telling of her time there. She had rolled each shirt and easily folded each pair of pants until she fit enough clothes in there for at least a week. Anything more and she would have forgotten going completely. Anything more would have been too much of a commitment. Chloe Beale wasn’t expected to stay.

She drove in absolute silence, listening to the hum of her engine as she carefully took her time against the snow-covered backdrop. Though part of her wouldn’t mind a wreckage, a deep and stony pit settled at the base of her stomach at the daunting thought of returning home, but Kali’s words continued to echo against her mind. _Don’t put me in a position of giving me incentive to return, Chloe._

Even the memory made her skin heat up and her throat rumble with a growl purely primal. She had always been protective of Beca, even before she got down on one knee and produced a ring. The blatant threat remained. But still, with Kali present the confident young woman had morphed into that scared kid all over again. The one that would duck her head and take the punishment delivered. Not the one who had created a whole new life. The one who had taken a wolf under her wing and taught her how to survive. No, she was nothing when the pack that made her came into question.

Chloe pulled up to the curb, her tires pointed at the cement. She had moved close enough to her house, refusing to park in the drive. It still looked the same- the house. The yellow popped against the white of the snow, large pine trees stretching their shadows over a black tiled roof. A lamp post was peaking from the walk, it’s light flickering bright enough, even though it was mid-day. She had driven all night.

Part of Chloe wanted to stay in a hotel. She could turn around and stay at the Indian Inn. It was Tribal, and mildly offensive, but affordable. The paint was chipping from the sign and each key came attached to a different wood carving of an animal. But the scent would be too much for her. The pull of her childhood home dragging her back like a leash attached to a tree.

She drummed her fingers against the steering wheel, trying to steady her breath before stepping into the cold, her eyes instinctively flashing towards the window that used to be hers as a child. There was no ugly blood stain or crumpled bushes from when she nearly broke her arm sneaking out in middle school. Instead, it looked normal. Like any other house on the long suburban street.

There was a van parked in the garage which had been left open. Three bikes lay out in the open. A lot of cleaning and gardening tools that were useless during the winter front. A jeep was parked closest to the grass. There was snow collected on the edges of the windshield, but the engine still clicked under its uses. The hood would be hot to the touch and the air smelled like gas.

She knocked and took a step back, almost like she was invading the doors personal space. Her hair was standing on end and her blood rushed past her ears in an act of anxiety, yet she stayed. She thought she would bite down hard enough on her cheek to draw a metallic taste, and if she hadn’t done that, then her nails would dig into the fresh skin of her palms, soaking into the pockets of her coat.

Alix looked tired. Her once beautiful blue eyes had dulled to a slate grey, but the vibrancy of her hair still remained. Its red tint had always given her away in school photos and documented memories. She was the eldest of the Beale sisters, the wisest too. Chloe still remembered when her older sister walked in on her and Phil Lancaster struggling to break into the liquor cabinet that their father kept locked under key. She never told mom.

The same look was on her features now. It was a mix of shock and disappointment, and it ripped Chloe apart from every fiber in her body. She instantly wanted to crumble at the scent- the warmth that was something she spent nearly twenty years pulling away from every aspect of herself. Alix carried it like it was a crown or a satin studded cape, and Chloe wanted to be engulfed.

“Chlo?” Her voice was older. Mature. “Oh my God.”

Chloe wasn’t expecting a hug. A slap across the face, maybe, but Alix surged forward, pulling her flush against her body as if to ignore the cold the seeped through every inch of her frame. The younger woman stiffened before she melted into the touch. The touch that she craved so much.

“Is it really _you?_ ” She begged, mumbling into her neck. “This isn’t some sort of a sick joke?”

She didn’t’ know what to say, Alix’s red eyes were boring into hers. She hadn’t realized she had been crying until liquid soaked into the collar of her jacket, instantly cool. Her lips were parted, her breathing heavy and thick with scent. “No, it’s me.”

Chloe pressed her hands against her sisters back, holding her flush. It was an embrace that she had craved for years at a time, and one she had forgotten. Her eyes burned, nose running as she pulled away and held her older sister by the shoulders, staring at her features. Breathing them in.

“Fuck, Chloe, you’re so grown up. I-“A shuddered breath, “We thought you were dead.”

Part of her had died, a long time ago. But she wasn’t about to rush into her sisters’ home and say that. She could hear the television in the main room. It sounded animated, two little heartbeats enticed by whatever was on the screen. Alix sensed her hesitation, turning her head back to stare towards the general direction before blue eyes met hers again.

“How long are you in town?” She sniffed, pulling back near completely. Alix pulled her sleeves down over her wrists, a nervous habit she always kept. When they were younger their mother used to pin the rolled-up fabric at her elbows. “I mean, I would love- we would love if you stayed with us.”

Chloe had let out the sigh of relief that was pulling at the back of her throat. She hadn’t yet breached the fact that her sister was in front of her, much less the topic of imposing enough to stay. Alix seemed to read her mind, a hopeful look in her reddened eyes. Once she had a hold, no matter how betrayed that hold felt, she would never let Chloe go.

“We?”

“Yeah, I…” She adjusted the door to her side. “Nina is home now, she was abroad for a while and needed to find herself again. Or at least that’s what she says. And I have the girls.”

Chloe raised her eyebrows, knitting them. She could feel herself sweating despite the cold. Nina Beale was the epitome of the middle child. She would sneak out in the middle of the night and plaster her wall in black paint much to their mother’s dismay. She left the second she could, or at least that’s what Chloe assumed. “The girls?”

She felt like a parrot.

Chloe had ghosted every inch of the conversation. It was like her sister was on the opposite side of a warped mirror. She looked older and wiser, and maybe if Chloe held her hand up to the frame then they would move with one another. She always thought of a second world. One that was warped. One that she was trapped behind.

She knew she had missed a lot. She had missed Alix’s marriage to a man who drove his truck up and down the interstate without even asking what he was hauling. She had missed a messy divorce and two twin girls that found their way through the rubble.

“Yeah, sweetie” Her voice was raw “My daughters. They’re eight now.”

 _Eight._ God, it really had been long, and judging by the sympathetic look that Alix was culminating, her face had grown pale with worry. Chloe knew what she was giving up, what she was leaving behind. But it didn’t make any of this easier. Didn’t’ make the looming edge cut any softer.

“You can grab your bags later,” She said, pulling Chloe in by the shoulder.

The warmth was overwhelming, and there was a roast in the oven. The house had the same layout as it always did; long stretching steps, a homey family room, and most importantly, the same pictures lining the wall.

Her prom picture was still hanging. She was too young to attend one herself, but when a junior asked her, she could hardly decline. Her dress was an obnoxious shade of pink that reddened her cheeks, and her braces could nearly reflect the flash, but her protests were quickly dulled.

 Her mother loved those pictures and that night.

 **The wine tasted** cheap, kind of like the stuff from the box. It was bitter and went down in a rocky fashion, but it still gave Chloe the type of buzz that she needed for this conversation. There was one light on, slowly creeping against the kitchen floor in its oddly golden haze. It was above the sink, and it shaded Alix’s tired eyes.

The television had been shut off and Alix’s girls had been ushered off to bed without an introduction. Chloe tried not to take offense to that. She was a stranger to them. A stranger to her sister and her newfound life. Her domestic life that didn’t’ include gate crashing or bailing her out when she broke into the liquor cabinet.

She tipped the glass bottle, watching as a dark crimson fill up over half of the crystal. This was her second pour, almost as if she was building up the nerve to talk. “You’re married?”

Chloe’s stare flashed down at her hand. A simple gold band with one embedded diamond surrounded in a deep cobalt. Beca had picked it out; simple, yet elegant. It was perfect. But right now, it caused Chloe to subconsciously tuck her fingers in her lap.

“Engaged, actually.”   

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you” She responded timidly, adjusting her position in the seat. She had suddenly lost all pension for alcohol and decided to nurse it for the rest of the night in fear of seeming rude. She was waiting for the questions to flood. They were inevitable, and she had spent the whole ride here trying to find a sensical reason for it all, but she couldn’t. “I’m sorry, Alix.”

Grey eyes moved up to hers. They were rimmed in red. She had been crying and that much was apparent just from the saddened stare that met hers. “I found the letter that day, you know?” Her fingers traced the glass. “Your window was open, and it had shifted on your bed. You had penned it so nicely. Rehearsed it, it seemed.”

Chloe had rehearsed it, in a way. She sat at her desk under the watchful eye of another and struggled to write. Tears unchecked had smeared the ink and made it look as if it was left on a wet bus seat. She didn’t’ have time to rewrite it and folded the paper firmly before leaving it on her bed to be found. Part of her was thankful it wasn’t her mother, the other aching at the thought of Alix dropping to her knees in unbridged fear.

“Why did you do it?” She asked, throat tight. “You just… _left._ ”

She swallowed a large portion of her wine. It hit the back of her jaw and made her mouth want to pucker but it was an even distraction from this conversation. The alcohol warmed her stomach and heated her throat. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Oh, do not give me that bullshit, Chloe.” She set the glass down, hesitating so it wouldn’t slam loud enough to wake her daughters that Chloe had yet to meet. She had a feeling that this conversation would determine if she pulled her bag from her car or not. “We tried to file you as a missing person, but they wouldn’t let us because you left a _fucking_ note.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“Why not?” Her voice was ripping past her throat enough to hear physical pain. “Chloe Mom died without knowing where you were… and that, that I could handle, you know? But it was too much for her. Too much for Nina, even.”

A sudden sadness had taken home in the base of her stomach with the alcohol. She had seen the obituary, having checked the paper more than once for her sleepy little hometown. Chloe had dashed off to the mountains for a week and a half before Beca traveled after her with a little search party of her own. If it wasn’t for Emily and her damned sense of smell she may have done the exact same thing she did years ago- run.

It took everything in Chloe to miss the funeral, to even stand off to the side in the characteristically cold and rainy weather. But her scent would be too strong, even with the dominating one of death flooding everyone’s senses. Her town was small enough to know.

A hand wrapped around hers, warm and comforting. She hadn’t noticed that her nails were digging little holes into the wooden surface. Their eyes met. “Sorry, that was- that was cruel. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“No, you did” Chloe’s voice was shallow as she struggled with her breath “But you’re right. You know? What I did wasn’t fair to anyone, especially not any of you.”

Alix squeezed her hand and gave her a mothering look; the one that meant she wasn’t going to drop it, but she wasn’t going to rush her with an explanation either. They sat there for a few moments, Chloe not willing to let go of the comforting touch, and Alix looking tenderly at her little sister that had grown so much older.

“Do you remember Miss Ellison?”

A perplexed look crossed her features “Your tenth-grade geometry teacher?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” Chloe swallowed evenly “Would you believe me if I told you she’s not who she says she is?”

Alix pursed her lips and sat back in her chair, pulling her touch back in order to grab the mostly empty glass of wine. She was rocking a slight buzz and Chloe didn’t’ blame her. If she could somehow explain to her sister that her body needed something a lot stronger in order to get her slightly warmer, she would. “Depends, Chlo. What do you mean?”

“She’s done some very bad things, Alix. It’s part of the reason I had to leave. The whole reason that I pulled back as I did.”

“I don’t understand,”

“I don’t expect you to.” Chloe drew in a breath “I just need you to trust me while I’m here because I need to put a stop to it.”

Her sister shifted uneasily in her seat, it was old enough to creak and groan under her weight. “You realize that’s a lot to ask? Supporting you while you come back to town with a God complex for good?”

Chloe’s voice was tight, her fingers tracing the grooves she had created with one single fit of exhaustion. “I know, Alix. But I promise you, I’ll explain everything when it’s safe enough for us to talk about this.”

She breathed into her wine glass, practically tasting the acidic edge. “Okay,” Alix nodded. “Okay.”


	3. 002

**_Autumn 2006_ **

**Chloe ran her** fingers evenly over the engraved green that seemed to reflect against her eyes. She had read the words over and over again, finding new nicks in the paint and particles of eraser that hadn’t been there before- yet, Chloe Beale could never bring herself to press the tip of that graphite into the paper.

She had got into a habit of holding her breath until the minty mess of air started to sting her throat. She would count instead of staring at the formula’s in front of her; _How long until I just pass out?_ She had tried that once too but eventually drew in a gasping breath when her eyes started to water.

Chloe placed the pencil down and drummed her fingers against the desk. The room was too silent for her, everyone was scribbling away, some holding headphones up to their ears as bulky Ipod’s hung out of their back pockets. Mrs. Ellison had always been good about letting them listen to music if it helped them focus, and Chloe tried that too. But it didn’t’ seem to curb her incessant ability that clung to not knowing much math at all.

The bell rang loudly, and the illusion of silence was suddenly broken as people all around her stood and placed their papers face down on the desk that stood at the front of the room like a dictator. The bell seemed to break Zoey Ellison. The woman scrunched up her nose and drew in a breath, stumbling awkwardly as Chloe slowly began packing up her stuff.

She was a gorgeous woman; she had captivated math students enough to purposely fail their exams if it meant the slim chance of repeating the year with her at their disposal. Chloe had found her captivating herself, her eyes a deep shade of green that looked like a painted porcelain doll- even if they were hidden by dark and bulky frames.

“Oh! Do page 432 tonight, only the odd problems-“The teacher sunk further into her seat “and they’re gone.”

Chloe found her lip twitching up into the beginning of a smile at that. It humanized the woman. She wasn’t dressed in a slate dress, didn’t carry around a wooden ruler and roam the spaces between the desks, the sounds of her heels tapping against linoleum echoing in her dreams. No, Miss Ellison was young, and learning, and not as scary as one in charge should be.

“You okay there, kid?” She asked.

“Yeah, I uh, sorry.”

Chloe shoved her papers into her bag and threw it over her shoulder as she stood. She used to think the little pet names were something the woman used because she wouldn’t bother to learn their actual titles, but she knew them. It was a fondness, an endearment without overstepping. She walked towards the door, stalling for a second.

“Since I heard you, does that mean I have to do page 432?”  

Zoey Ellison laughed then. It was a light and airy sound. Her eyes crinkled at the edges when she did so and Chloe thought that teaching math wasn’t something this goddess of a woman should be trapped into.

“No, Chloe. You don’t. Have a good weekend.”

The teenager smiled in response and ducked her head. The hallways cleared easily on days like this; it was still September, the cold hadn’t quite grasp a hold on their little town and football season was just starting to trickle into the air. The megaplex movie theatre resigned to five-dollar movies on Friday and the diner on the edge of main street sold half-off milkshakes until seven. No one wanted to stay in a dingy old school.  

“Chloe, wait?”

She stalled, turning before she reached towards her lockers. The metal was cold against her fabric coated arm and her books weighted down the bag that was strung over her shoulder. Chloe Beale had no intention of taking textbooks home over the short two-day break. Instead, she would let them sit and rot and grow cold.

The teacher stood in front of her, almost awkwardly. “I... you were having trouble back there? With the content?”

“That obvious, huh?”

“Not many students like to linger unless they can’t get a bearing on things.” Ellison blinked her smoky eyes “We can set something up if you’d like. Tutoring sessions. I can’t offer you much, but time is something I do have.”

Chloe pondered that for a moment. If her grades slipped anymore, she would be forced by her mother to get a tutor anyway, and the offer certainly wouldn’t still stand. She would end up with someone like Tim Zimmers. That boy picked at every scab that he had, and he spits when he talked. She wouldn’t be able to focus on the y formula then, either.

Chloe realized that she hadn’t actually spoken a few seconds, and Miss Ellison was staring at her with that simple gaze that could hold something more, but she wasn’t quite sure. Not yet, anyway. Plenty of people had crushes on their teachers- that, that was normal. And so was this.

“Yeah, yes. I mean, if you’re sure I could definitely use the extra help.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes darted into the math textbook that she had just shoved into her locker. “I don’t want to put you out or anything.”

“No, not at all, Chloe. I’m here to help. We’ll figure something out on Monday, yeah?”

She gave Chloe a pat on the shoulder and headed back to her classroom. Chloe watched her walk, letting her locker close with a dull thud of sound. Her skin burned where Miss Ellison’s fingers had grazed.

Her phone dinged in her pocket. She pulled it out and flipped the top part of it up. Chloe frowned at the message- Alix was in the parking lot, giving her another five minutes before she had to walk home in the bitter cold. It was a threat often made, one that she learned her lesson from when she took too long in the library during negative three weather. She was a popsicle by the time she got home, and Alix just laughed before making her a cup of hot chocolate.

 **Chloe had accepted** the coffee gratefully, not bothering with the sugar or even the cream. Usually, she would have frowned away from the cup of black caffeine without the additives. But living with Beca for years had made it easier to stomach. Right now, she needed something easy. Something that wouldn’t’ be a bother.

Chloe had slept fitfully, at best. The whole house smelled like her mother, like her childhood. It was enough to lull her for a few moments before she woke up in a cooling sweat, her heartbeat pounding against the inside of her wrist. She thought she heard Nina walk in a few times- but it was just Alix’s daughters stirring for a glass of water.

She woke up early and accepted the mug that was thrust in her direction. Her younger sister was working the night shift, had been to keep up with school. A local community college and a degree in arts. She was doing well, from the hazy small talk that Alix sounded out.

The edge of the counter dug into her spine as she sipped the drink, letting the steam warm her cheeks. She had met Alix’s kids, her nieces before they boarded the big yellowed bus for school. They had been packed with a fresh set of clothes each, their father was taking them for the weekend.

Allie and Carter: beautiful girls with the biggest blue eyes that she had ever seen. She had answered the rapid-fire questions they shot at her with a gentle smile and waved them off like she hadn’t missed all eight years of their life.  

Now she stood awkwardly in the kitchen while her older sister nursed a hangover. She grunted in response at the simple question “How are you functioning right now?” before the woman slipped two aspirin in her mouth. She didn’t’ have the heart to say that she never really got hangovers anymore.

She straightened at the sound of the front door opening. It could only be one person- her kid sister that was only in middle school when Chloe left. She had tried out for the soccer team, borrowed her sweaters without asking, teased her about how she hit every cone on her driving course.

“Lex!” she heard the voice that rose goosebumps against her skin, footsteps getting closer “There’s some weird car parked in front of the-“

Her voice faded completely the second she rounded the corner. She looked older, not that little kid that she remembered. Her hair was the same wild red but cropped short and straightened. She had gotten stronger, tanner, than Chloe remembered. She was in uniform- a midnight security guard dressed in all black. Chloe wondered how many shoplifters she had stopped, why she looked so tired. Why all of that vanished the second she caught her gaze.

“I’ll give you two a moment. Try not to kill each other.” Alix awkwardly shuffled into her bedroom, and neither of them moved from their frozen stance until they heard the door slam softly behind her. It was more than a ploy this time. They were alone, and Chloe could practically taste the scent of tension in the air.  

Nina let her keys fall to the table. There was a little Harry Potter keychain on the edge, a pair of glasses with a dastardly lightning bolt against the middle. It was easier to focus on that, easier to ignore the stare that bore into her. Her kid sister was the same height as her now, walking close enough to smell the sweat and vanilla body spray.

“Nina,”

The hand came across the edge of her cheek quickly, a sting moving through her jaw with a ringing passion. She trained her eyes against the linoleum floor, not bothering to press her fingers against the growing red welt that was forming. She could have stopped it, could have caught Nina’s hand before it made contact, but part of her resigned to deserving it.

“You’re a fucking asshole, you know that, right?” Nina growled, “Such an asshole.”

Nina pulled her close, and Chloe froze at the contact. Her younger sister wrapped her arms so evenly against her, sobbing into her neck as the woman finally relented and hugged her flush. She could feel the wetness of the tears, smell the salt. Nina dug her nails into her skin and let out a deep sob.

“I’m sorry, I know.” She whispered in her hair, running her palm against the woman’s back in an attempt to sooth her shaking chest. “I’m sorry.”

She palmed part of Chloe’s shirt in her hand and pulled back ever so slightly, her blue eyes rimmed in red, her cheeks flushed. “You don’t think I know,” She whispered “You don’t think I could live in a town like this and not know for so long, Chloe…. You could have come home. You should have come home.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is more exposition, but it's going to be a lot of flashbacks! Anyway, tell me what you guys think.


	4. 003

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not neglecting this story, I promise! Just... distracted. Also, I really like Claire!

   **There was a** white spot in the snow that Chloe couldn’t keep her eyes away from. Something that had echoed in a pillow of white like every winter that she could possibly remember. Right below her bedroom window. There wasn’t an angry flash of crimson, and that’s what captivated her. A scene that she couldn’t place anymore because of a missing feature. A missing bird with a broken wing.

She sniffed against the cold and kept walking. Past her car, past the mailbox, and right to the sidewalk that was littered with kids during the summer. They were in school now, she supposed, a town like this one not merciful with snow days. They had been cleared by salt and begrudging shovels. She almost missed the heat.

Nina walked next to her, boots crunching along the solid sheetrock. They hadn’t spoken. Not when they lost sight of their quaint little home, or the neighbors, for that matter. Instead, they were bathed in an uncomfortable silence until Chloe finally let out a deep exhale.

“I haven’t seen snow like this in a long time.” She said, “I forgot how cold it got here.”

Nina scoffed loudly, “You didn’t come all the way home to discuss the weather, Chloe.”

The younger girl had a bluntness about her that made Chloe recoil. She remembers a bee sting the most. An insect that was trapped against the screen door. It had dug its stinger into her arm and Nina had instantly started wailing. Chloe picked her up and applied a healthy dose of cornstarch and warm water. It took the sting right out.

She still had a scar, but it was covered by a winter coat.

 “When you left, I defended you. Thought that maybe you were doing what was best, keeping us safe, you know?” Nina swallowed thickly “The older I got, the more I realized that you ran because you were scared… scared of them, and of what they did to you.”

She stopped at the end of the frozen street, right under the intersecting signs. There was muddy snow from a plow at the base of the pole covering up the dying grass. The ground was sure to be rock solid. unmovable against any shovel. The cold hadn’t gotten to her yet but she shifted her sweaty hands in her coat pockets. She had been scared.

If she wasn’t scared, she wouldn’t’ have scrawled out a random note before shoving whatever clothes she could into a bag and dousing them in musk from the local superstore. She had hopped out the window that night and jogged all the way to the gas station before leaving the bottle and hitching a ride with a man in his semi. Scared was an understatement.

“I’ve seen too many people wheeled into that hospital from animal attacks. Too many mutilated to the point of unrecognition. Like they’re toying with them.” She let out a long breath that culminated in condensation. “I’m surprised they didn’t’ kill you on the spot, Chloe.”

Chloe had almost forgotten how much Nina had to look the other way. She would stand flush against the wall of the psyche ward of the hospital and keep quiet, not in the corner of the town mall like she assumed. Chloe could only imagine what her sister had seen, what she had heard. People claiming to see large beasts with glowing eyes and peeled back gums. Slobber dripping onto exposed skin. Chloe felt her chest tighten.

“They wanted me back in this town. I had escaped them for so long, created a life for myself at the expense of others and I- Nina, they wouldn’t track me down unless they wanted something.”

“Maybe they’re intimidated by you.” She glanced around, making sure no one was outside. No one was- it was way too early in the day and the snow was too crisp. Too harsh as it stung both of their features. “From what I read, wolves that break away from the pack are either killed on the spot, or they’re strong enough to survive. We’re just lucky you’re the latter.”

Chloe knew the odds. Had lived with them every single time she ran into someone kind enough to invite her into their reinks at the lowest level possible. She had tried that once or twice before breaking away completely- scared and alone until she met Aubrey.

“How are you so okay with this?”

Nina swallowed a heap of cold air and focused her dull grey stare, on Chloe. She couldn’t get over how old she looked now- her hair falling into her features and her nose raw from the chilly atmosphere. She didn’t’ seem at all bothered by it.

“Surrounding myself in something that you had become was a lot easier than believing you had been murdered at some truck stop because you were ignorant enough to catch a ride there.” She finally said. “knowing that you were one of them was better than thinking you were dead.”

**_Autumn 2006_ **

**The scent of** fallen leaves was thick in the air. It was a tell-tale sign of green turning to a mix of crimson and deadened brown before laying each side of the picturesque street. It was her favorite time of the year- except when it came with the stormy downpour. She had been so focused on learning chapter seven of the textbook with Zoey Ellison by her side that she didn’t even realize how dark it had grown.

She knew Alix wouldn’t wait- practice was canceled and it was easier to speed home than to sit in a cold car in a parking lot. She couldn’t’ blame her. Instead, Chloe leaned against the brick wall right outside the doors to the school. There were still a few cars in the parking lot and Chloe pulled her jacket closer to her frame. She would wait until it let up and walk the seven blocks home.  

Chloe hit the button on the side of her phone and shoved it into her pocket. It was about to die, and she contemplated taking the plunge into the icy elements. But then the door behind her opened and a blast of hot air pushed against her backside.

Claire Karnstien was a name she had only seen painted on construction paper and slathered across the school corridors- _Karnstien for class president. Vote Karnstien homecoming. Student Union? Claire Karnstien is your best choice!_

Alix said she was a girl that everyone loved to hate. The type of person who was pretty and popular but never lost her tender kindness along the way. Her hair was a soft blonde, her limey green eyes popping against the dull grey of the day. Her features were sharp, and Chloe could almost imagine her with her straight stance on the homecoming float- doing that obliged pageant wave. But she smiled and it was genuine.

“You’re the girl Miss Ellison has been tutoring right?” Chloe didn’t expect her to be southern, but she was. It made sense- when Alix was going on about her, she mentioned the girl moving from Virginia, or maybe it was South Carolina. Either way, it came with charm. “Sorry, I don’t mean to pry it’s just- do you need a ride? It’s coming down pretty hard out there.”    

“Thank you, but I think I’ll just wait it out.”

Claire frowned and it was still angelic. “Come on, Chloe, it’s raining sideways. Don’t think it’s going to let up anytime soon- it’s not a problem, really.”

She drew in a steely breath and stared out at the slowly collecting puddles in the parking lot. Chloe would love nothing more than the clouds to open up enough for the sun to show. That way she could avoid the small talk and the awkward silence of a senior, a popular senior, driving her home. Finally, she nodded.

“Great! Come on.”

She gave Chloe a sloppy smile before rushing off into the pouring rain, not at all bothered by the cold. Chloe blinked dumbly before following her through the parking lot. They ended up in a Honda Civic that smelled like mango and now rainwater. It was dripping from Chloe’s nose and soaked into her clothes. Claire quickly flicked on the heat before the both of them bust into infectious laughter.

“see, if you walked home in that, you’d be screwed.” She said, putting the car into reverse.

“I suppose you’re right, thank you.”

“It’s no problem, really.” Claire smiled, it was broad and contagious. Something about her words making Chloe warmer than the heat that blasted from the vents. “We look out for each other, right?”

“We?” She knit her eyebrows together, working her hand through her now damp tresses. They looked blood red in the greying light of the day. The sun still hidden as lightning flashed and thunder roared. All of that drowned by the sound of the windshield wipers.

“Yeah. Everyone in town.” She turned onto Chloe’s street, not prompting for where she lived. “Besides, if Miss Ellison is willing to help you, I’m sure you’re good in character.”

Chloe nodded with a slight smile. She didn’t remember any seniors giving her a second look, much less an actual ride home, rain or not. Maybe Claire was just different. Or at least that’s what Chloe decided when she ventured back out into the rain, and away from the small car with the pageant queen behind the wheel.   


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been like four months since I've actually updated this story and I'm super sorry, but you guys wanted some action- so here's some!

**Chloe swallowed back** a yelp of primal pain, saving herself from gulping in a heap of sterile air. She had a feeling it would taste like lemon, a stark reminder of when she got a job at a sandwich shop before breaking away from a small town in Vermont. The mixture they used for the floors were streaky and filled with the same citrus scent that clawed at her throat now.  

A hand was across her lips and desperate neon eyes searched her face. Claire Karnstien looked older, rougher in her ways, but all the while gentler than Kali in holding her against a dingy bathroom wall in a coffee shop- much like she had done with Emily earlier in her stay at Barden. Now she was on the receiving end of it, struggling to push the near-stranger away.

She wore a white apron around her waist and smelled of coffee beans, a hint of sweat pulling at Chloe’s senses. More importantly, she smelled like them. Her old pack had a distinct signature that made her stomach churn and her heart pound against the inside of her ear. She had picked up on it the second she went to grab her order.

“What the hell are you doin’ here?” Claire said in a hushed voice.

Chloe shoved Claire off, pulling at her jacket until the buttons were straight and her space didn’t’ feel so invaded anymore. “Getting Coffee?”

She knew it wasn’t the answer that the young pageant queen was looking for. Even in the harsh lighting of the small bathroom, she looked flawlessly aged- her hair pooled around pristine features, twisted into somewhat of a scowl. Her shoulders were pulled back with pride, arms crossed over her chest as she scrutinized Chloe with her Kellie-Green eyes.

Her stance was rougher than it had ever been in high school, but then again, the stakes weren’t as high when they were a couple of teenagers blindly following a woman with a god complex. Not a woman at all, Chloe had realized too late. Claire took a steadying breath laced with a growl. She worked her fingers through her hair.

“You can’t be here.” She finally settled on her words.

“In this bathroom, or in town?”

“I… I don’t know, both?”

Chloe lifted an easy eyebrow. Claire didn’t know she was here, couldn’t have known based on the way her perfectly manicured hand wrapped around Chloe’s wrist and locked the door behind them. Ever so innocent despite the hiss and power in her words. Chloe could smell the anxiety rolling off of her in waves. Not at all subtle.

A laugh far more bitter than Chloe intended escaped her lips. It earned a deadly stare. “I’m sorry, really, it’s just… Your beta summoned, no _threatened_ me into compliance, and she didn’t even have the good sense to tell you?”

“Watch your tone.”

“Or what?”

They were in a stalemate. Years ago, Chloe would have surrendered at the first look of annoyance. Today she held a steady glare, those clear green eyes staring back at her with nothing but contempt. Prom queen fallen. Prom queen feral.

Claire relented. She dropped her shoulders and placed her palms against the edge of the eggshell sink for balance or stability. Maybe even both. Her straw-colored hair fell into her gaze and her breath started to even out despite the despite edge against it. Chloe almost felt bad, her heart murmuring in her throat.  

“She used to pretend that what she had given us was a gift.” She spoke in one drawn out breath. “That she had pulled us from the mortality of life and that there was nothing we could ever do to make that up to her, you know? Even with the little favors that stretched into something bigger.”

Claire drew in a watery gulp of air and turned to face Chloe again, her eyes were rimmed in red. “after you left it was less about a safe calling and more about what we could have done, what we did do, to make sure something like you never happened again. Fear instead of family” A choked laugh “Made me wish I had enough in me to disobey her and leave just like you did. But I was always in deeper than you, wasn’t I?”

She didn’t expect an answer and Chloe didn’t move to give one. Claire looked weak in the fluorescents. Exhausted past a point of return. Chloe was regretting the decision to push out of her small family home and into town, if only for a moment. She was positive that under the gooey weathered mess of flyers her missing poster was engraved into brick, and telephone poles. A runaway, she was deemed. But her mother still tried tirelessly.

“Kali threatened you?” Claire changed the subject, wiping her cheeks with the base of her palm.

“If she had only threatened me, I wouldn’t be here. But my life isn’t the only one at stake right now.” Chloe’s mouth became dry at the thought, but she didn’t let it show. Her entire focus was on regulating how fast or how slow her heart was pounding. Both of them were smart enough to listen, and both smart enough to care. “You tell Kali, or Ellison for that matter, that if they want me they can act like adults and face me head-on. Not through thinly veiled threats against my family.”

“Make no mistake, Chloe. None of her promises go unmade.” There was desperation deep in her voice. “They won’t face you like an adult, like a leader, if you were nothing but a child who ran away, tail between her legs”

**_Autumn 2006_ **

**The small diner** sat at the edge of town like a beacon of hope in a sleepy hollow that had long been emptied in favor of bigger cities that had more to do than high school football games and binge drinking. It served for a simpler time with it’s checkered faded floor and neon bulbs that buzzed like the second coming of the plague.

Chloe watched from the corner booth, her back sweaty against the red leather upholstery. She had run the pad of her finger over the writing engraved in her dull pencil more than once. She had arranged the creamers into a little pyramid before testing its strength with her eraser. She had downed yet another mint hot chocolate that her mother’s coworker set in front of her with an understanding smile.

It wasn’t often that she had to sit in the diner, its fans circulating hot air above. Slow and methodic. Only when Nina and Alix were busy- only when her mother didn’t trust her enough to obey the city-wide curfew and crawl into bed at a reasonable time. So, instead, she sat here and bellyached and got what work for school she could get done finished in time for them to close up shop.

Two upperclassmen sat at the far end of the counter and sucked down chocolate malts. An older woman enjoyed a piece of pie in the corner, her fork stabbing the round cherries until they squirted a sticky red. And then her mother, pretty and vibrant, glowed under the reds and blues of the jukebox that no one used anymore. She shot Chloe a smile every once and awhile.

The door blew in a cold autumn air and Chloe shivered into her sweatshirt as the bell rang against the dulled music that was nothing but white noise. Zoey Ellison was barely bundled against the nightly chill. A red shadow cast across her features. She walked with confidence to the register before handing over a twenty- proclaiming that they keep the change and grabbing a plastic carry-out container.

Her steely stare met Chloe’s with inept timing, and it was too late to look away. It was unsettling, seeing her without a brisk button-down or a floral dress that flowed with the wind. She wore a white t-shirt and a forest green zip-up hoodie. She shot the girl a smile, broad, before walking across the squares that alternated on the floor.

“Hi,” Chloe said awkwardly, her posture was suddenly straight against the booth instead of slumped over while she perfected the architecture of her tower. Ellison eyed it too.

“That’s quite the structure there.”

“Thanks, I’m avoiding history homework.” She flushed “I mean- not avoiding per-say, just delegating to my procrastination.”

Zoey Ellison laughed, and the sound was sweet. It reminded Chloe of the honeysuckles that grew up the edge of her fence until her neighbor sprayed its base with plant killer. Now it was dried up and dead.

“It’s okay,” She lowered her voice to a whisper “You know, I’m a human outside of school.” She shook the box of take-out “I eat French fries and avoid my homework too.”

Chloe’s reluctance turned to a smile of her own. The woman in front of her shifting the bag from one hand to the other before lifting her chin. “We’re still on for our tutoring session, tomorrow right?”

She nodded quickly, “Of course, as long as it’s not an inconvenience.”

“It never is, Chloe. I promise not to tell Mr. Parker that you’re pushing his paper aside.”

Ellison turned to exit the small diner on the slight corner in an even slighter town. Chloe stared at the door long after the woman had left, the older woman in the corner had finished her pie, licking the plate clean of bloody pulp. The open sign buzzed in response to the silence. One of the boys at the end of the counter threw a ten under his empty cup- the other lilted his head at Chloe, staring right through her with ghostly eyes.


End file.
